Rights beyond the list
Warns against treating the Constitution's listed rights as the only rights people retain.
In Simple, Modern English
Listing certain rights in the Constitution does not mean that other rights held by the people are denied or less important.
Important Clauses & Details
Non-exhaustive rights
The constitutional list of rights is not exhaustive. The amendment is an instruction about interpreting that list.
People retain rights
The focus is individual rights retained by the people, not the division of governmental powers between nation and states.
Why It Was Added
Some opponents of a bill of rights worried that a written list would imply unlisted rights did not exist. The Ninth responds to that concern while allowing explicit protections to be added.
The Ninth does not identify every unenumerated right or automatically establish any asserted right. Do not confuse it with the Tenth's reserved-powers principle.
Plain-English study paraphrases summarize the text; they are not verbatim translations. Historical provisions and later changes are identified above. Sources: National Archives and Constitution Annotated.